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Buttressing Supply Chains against Floods in Asia for Humanitarian Relief and Economic Recovery
Author(s) -
Sodhi ManMohan S.,
Tang Christopher S.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
production and operations management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.279
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1937-5956
pISSN - 1059-1478
DOI - 10.1111/poms.12111
Subject(s) - stylized fact , flood myth , supply chain , business , humanitarian logistics , mile , last mile (transportation) , distribution (mathematics) , natural disaster , humanitarian aid , natural resource economics , industrial organization , economics , economic growth , marketing , geography , mathematical analysis , mathematics , archaeology , geodesy , meteorology , macroeconomics
Floods are the most frequent category of disasters worldwide. Among all geographic regions, Asia has suffered the most. While there are several ongoing humanitarian efforts and initiatives, we believe there is a new opportunity to coordinate “last mile” humanitarian efforts in the event of a flood using micro‐retailers. Because micro‐retailers are the “last mile” nodes in traditional retail supply chains in many Asian countries, we propose the use of social enterprise to buttress these supply chains for distribution of essential goods by coordinating with micro‐retailers before and after floods. We also present a stylized model to quantify the benefits of doing so.